Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Letting the wood speak

When I carve with Cottonwood Bark I let the wood speak to me.  I have carved many little houses and no two are exactly alike.  That is because no two pieces of bark are alike.

Bark is easy on my arthritic hands and my recovering carpal tunnel problem.  I had a bunch of houses on the table to paint when I decided to show you all what the carving process is like.

First I look in my bag and get out a piece of wood.

carving blank

Here is a blank…I saw a pillar in the front, a door with a window and a chimney, on the other side I saw a tree.

I mapped it out so you could see it.

Carving mapped out

See the P in the front?  The C is a chimney and there is a door with a window.

chimney and roofline

Then I began to carve out the chimney and made the roofline.

carving the pillar

The pillar is always a bit difficult…sometimes you need a bit of glue to strengthen part of the pillar. You have to carve behind the pillar and remove lots of wood.

almost done

Almost done, the door is a bit big but I had room to make a nice window.  Later I will drill out the window and file it to the right shape.

Here is the tree and I had room for a funny shaped window…there are no rules that must be followed in bark carving.

window and tree

The tree will look more like a tree when it is painted and my second thought was the window is in the chimney…oh well maybe is is just in a little room around the chimney area!

carving complete

Before                                                   After

carving blankcarving complete

That is pretty much what I saw in this piece of wood.

Hope you enjoyed seeing my carving process.

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20 comments:

Cathie said...

Thank you for sharing your process! Interesting.

Anonymous said...

Very interesting and oh, so cute!

Sallysmom said...

Are you self taught or did you take a class?

linda m said...

I loved seeing your wood carving piece. I can see how you envision things from just looking at the wood.

Coloring Outside the Lines said...

I love your wood houses- mine holds center stage on the top shelf of my pie pantry. Very cute.

DJan said...

Definitely! You are very talented and seem to find ways to keep yourself busy all the time. I enjoyed seeing the little house emerge from the wood. :-)

Terry and Linda said...

I did enjoy the process. Artist always can 'see' what is there in wood, stone, everything....me? I have to wait and see what the artist already knows exists. Well done, Connie

Tired Teacher said...

Interesting post. I love that you allow the bark to "talk" to you.

L. D. said...

It is a great demo. People who do clay have to remove clay to find the sculpture inside of it. You wood is the same thing as you see the parts you need. The chimney development was a surprise to me but it did work out great. I can see you wear protecting while chipping things away.

Far Side of Fifty said...

I took a class and went from there:)

Rita said...

What fun! I love that there are no rules. That is where the charm can enter in. :)

Red said...

I always admire what people can do with a piece of material. they see what's in the bark before they carve.

Cynthia said...

Very interesting to see what you see in a piece of wood and how you let that lead you to create the little house. I love your little houses.

Bonnie said...

How fun to see your process! I love that your talent enables you to see what is in the wood and guide it out!

Granny Marigold said...

Interesting to see how you go about it.

Patsy said...

What a great hobby, making treasures for the future.

Linda Reeder said...

Thanks for sharing your process! It's fun to see the little house take shape. I hope you will bring this one back to us when it is painted.

Henny Penny said...

I did enjoy seeing this! I love the little houses. Looks like there should be little people and a storybook to go along with the houses.

Gemma's person said...

I LOVED seeing it.

Sam I Am...... said...

thank you for showing us your process. I've always wondered where you start but I did "see" some things before you carved..I saw a pine tree where you put the door and I saw an outside stone chimney where you put the pillar. Whoa Nellie! Another hobby for me? No, I don't think so. I sure enjoy yours though!